In the summer of 2021, the palace where Alexander the Great was born, will be open for visitors.
Alexander the Great, otherwise referred to as the “King of Kings”, was born on July 20 or 21, 356 B.C. in Pella, Macedonia. He became King of the Ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedonia and led a Pan-Hellenic military campaign against Persia and in the process spread Greek culture across the entire empire he created.
When the relics of the building in Pella (which was excavated in 1957) were discovered, no one knew it was the palace that the “King of Kings” grew up in.
“The palace had a public character and inside was the room where the banquets took place, or the room of the throne if I am allowed to use this expression,” Dr. Elisavet Tsigarida, Director of Ephorate of Antiquities of Pella, told AMNA.
She emphasised that the works in the area are currently underway with funding from the National Strategic Reference Framework.
Dr. Elisavet Tsigarida is optimistic that the site will open to the public in the summer of 2021.
The visitor will be able to see the palace floor plan at the foundation level, while the goal of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Pella is to present a digital tour at the visitor centre which is expected to be built in 2023. At the centre, guests will be able to watch the digital representation of not only the palace, but of the building ensemble which consisted of seven huge buildings, with inner courtyards, corridors, stairwells and galleries that were connected to each other.
“The total area is around 70 acres. These dimensions can be understood if we take into account the fact that Pella was the capital of the Macedonian Kingdom at the time. The original palace was smaller, but it was expanded after the campaign of Alexander the Great. The period from 320 to 250 BC was a time of great prosperity for Macedonia, while the wealth of the palace was also known. Let’s not forget that throughout the third and second century BC, Pella was the center of the Macedonian Kingdom, one of the most important states of the time," Dr. Elisavet Tsigarida added.
The palace was looted by the Romans when the Macedonians were defeated in 168 B.C. "The Romans did not destroy the city but looted the palace, where of course there were treasures. They even took the king and his family as slaves in Rome, to show their triumph," she concluded.
Last month, Dutch photographer and digital designer Bas Uterwijk used artificial intelligence to create a ‘photograph’ of Alexander the Great… or what he could have looked like.
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